Today's customer in the garage is a fun deck sent in by a throwback from yesteryear named Sean:

  

Hi Matt!

 

I was actually a deck mechanic a number of years ago on Pojo, before life took me on a path away from card games.  I've recently been going through my collection with some friends of mine, and found a few gems I built once upon a time, as well as a few works in progress.  I'm writing to you to get your advice on a deck that I know is impractical, but is simply meant to be a casual/for fun deck, with just a little bit of teeth to it (because, hey, winning is fun, right?).

 

The deck revolves around a card that came out in Cold Snap: Braid of Fire. Obviously meant to power cumulative upkeeps, I remember dreaming of ways to break the card or find another way to make use a of a card that generates more and more free mana every turn, but that only lasts during your upkeep. Sadly this card was considered an utter reject at the time it was printed, even with cumulative upkeep, because Mana Burn was still a part of the game.  Now that that's gone, it's far less self destructive than it originally was.

 

The deck is packed with burn spells for targeted removal (hexproof, shroud and protection from red all rain on that, but fortunately my collection and those of my friends don't contain many of those cards) and the goal is get out Braid of Fire, Magmatic Core and Stuffy Doll so that you can hurl vast amounts of damage at the Doll and indirectly kill your opponent.  Here's the deck list below:

 

 

Exploding Braided Doll

 

8x Creatures:

4x Goblin Arsonist

4x Stuffy Doll

 

4x Non-creature Artifacts:

2x Pariah's Shield

2x Orochy Hatchery

 

25x Spells:

4x Lightning Bolt

4x Searing Spear

4x Incinerate

4x Braid of Fire

4x Rift Bolt

3x Magmatic Core

2x Volcanic Geyser

 

23x Land:

4x Evolving Wilds

4x Terramorphic Expanse

15x Mountain

 

 

Any thoughts on how to improve this deck (making it faster and better able to answer threats, or better able to utilize Braid of Fire, would be greatly appreciated!  I know it's a wacky deck, but I've always been a bit of a Johnny at heart (except for the Jester's Scepter deck I built years ago... that wasn't very nice at all ha ha ha!) and wacky cards like Braid peak my interest.

 

Thanks!

 

---

 

Well, Sean, it's nice to hear from you! I understand about life taking you away from card games - I've been in and out of the game multiple times myself. There's just something about Magic that keeps drawing us back, isn't there?

 

I also share your fondness for goofy, impractical decks that do fun stuff. The challenge is that we usually play against people who like to win, so our silly decks don't do too well. Nevertheless, let's see what we can do to make this one a little better.

 

As you mentioned, they key card is Braid of Fire. What types of things work well with Braid of Fire? The answer is anything you can use extra mana on during your upkeep. That would include instants, activated abilities, and cards with flash. You've got a number of those things with all your instant burn cards and a unique synergy with Magmatic Core.

 

Another key card in your deck, adding to the sheer fun, is the classic Stuffy Doll. Your burn works well with him, but if you've got Lightning Bolt and the like, why not just throw those at the opponent's face? There are some more creative ways to deal damage to creatures.

 

One that I think can be a real all-star for you is Jiwari, the Earth Aflame. Once you get him out, every turn you can spend your Braid of Fire mana to deal damage to an opposing creature or to Stuffy. To make room, let's drop the Orochi Hatchery. It requires a 5 mana investment every turn to make it do anything, while Jiwari is scale-able based upon how much you have available. We'll just do a 2 for 2 swap since Jiwari is legendary.

 

+2 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame

-2 Orochi Hatchery

 

Next, I'd like to make an adjustment to your burn spells. Rift Bolt is a sorcery, so you don't get the benefit of casting it off of Braid mana. Plus, you need something to help you deal with bigger threats that can survive 2 damage. In its place, I would put Fated Conflagration. Five damage for 4 mana is a pretty good investment. While it can't go directly to the player, you have a good way to get around that!

 

+3 Fated Conflagration

-4 Rift Bolt

 

One of the most fun cards you could play in a deck like this is Blasphemous Act. While it's a sorcery and won't work from Braid mana, it's 13 damage to all creatures, and most of the time, if there are enough creatures out to make it worth playing, it shouldn't cost more than a few mana. Your opponent's creatures cower in fear (and help make the spell cheaper) while Stuffy giggles with glee. Goblin Arsonist doesn't seem to mind either. And while we're at it, let's throw in a couple copies of a functional cousin of the Arsonist, Perilous Myr. For one more mana, he deals one more damage when he dies. Let's drop another of the boring 3 damage spells - Searing Spear - to make room for these.

 

+2 Blasphemous Act

+2 Perilous Myr

-4 Searing Spear

 

There's a quirky new card in M15 that I think would work really well here: Aggressive Mining. At the price of not playing any more land, it allows you to sacrifice a land per turn and draw 2 cards. My thought is that once you get your key cards out - namely Braid of Fire and Stuffy Doll - you can pretty much work off of the Braid mana and can afford to start sacrificing your lands. Multiples in play at once aren't much good, so let's just go with 2.

 

+2 Aggressive Mining

 

Finally, let's look at your land. I understand why you would run Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds to thin out your deck, but I think having 8 lands that come into play tapped goes against your desire of speeding up the deck. Let's take those 8 lands out. In their place, I would suggest 4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Since you're playing all Mountains otherwise, this could be a great additional source of damage to make up for the bolts and spears we took out. I've added one more card than we've taken out, so just 3 Mountains will fill the holes. 22 lands should be enough for a monocolored deck with mana help.

 

-4 Evolving Wilds

-4 Terramorphic Expanse

+4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

+3 Mountain

 

I realize that you're mostly playing from a pre-existing set of cards, so you may not have most of the new cards I suggested, but none of my additions go for more than a few dollars at the most. If you were to make these changes, it would look something like this:

 

 

Exploding Braided Doll

 

12x Creatures:

4x Goblin Arsonist

4x Stuffy Doll

2x Perilous Myr

2x Jiwari, the Earth Aflame

 

26x Non-creature Spells:

4x Lightning Bolt

3x Fated Conflagration

4x Incinerate

4x Braid of Fire

3x Magmatic Core

2x Volcanic Geyser

2x Blasphemous Act

2x Aggressive Mining

2x Pariah's Shield

 

22x Land:

4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

18x Mountain

 

 

I had a lot of ideas when putting this together. I think the ones I suggested kept most true to what you were trying to do with the deck, but for some more fun, here are some more options:

 

- Use a lot of cheap artifact creatures along with Kudoltha Forgemaster and Hoarding Dragon to help you search for Stuffy and Pariah's Shield.

 

- Add in Strionic Resonator to allow you to double the damage Stuffy and Magmatic Core deal. Might as well go more Stuffy Doll focused and use the other 13 damage spell - Shivan Meteor.

 

- Go a little more creature-centric starting with Figure of Destiny, since he can do his pseudo-level-up during the upkeep. Add in flash and morph creatures (red Akroma, anyone?) for more ways to use the Braid mana.

 

Thanks, Sean, for writing in with this fun deck! May your deck run more smoothly for you and bring lots of pain to those across the table!

 

 

mattedesa